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Wife Beating in Islamic Law: Difference between revisions
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==Islamic scriptures and wife-beating== | ==Islamic scriptures and wife-beating== | ||
See Also:[[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Wife Beating]] | See Also:[[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Wife Beating]] | ||
===Wife-beating in the Qur'an=== | ===Wife-beating in the Qur'an=== | ||
{{Main|Wife Beating in the Qur'an}} | |||
====(4:34) 'Beat them'==== | ====(4:34) 'Beat them'==== | ||
{{Quran|4|34}} Instructs men to beat their wives if they fear nushūzahunna, a word commonly understood to mean "their disobedience" or "their rebellion", though the exact meaning of the word is unclear (see {{Quran|4|128}}, which gives instructions to women who fear nushūzan from their husbands). The word 'beat' in the Arabic is ''daraba.''<ref>daraba - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume5/00000062.pdf Lane's lexicon] Book I page 1777</ref> Although a small number of modern Islamic scholars, apologists, and activists have argued that the word ''daraba'' in the verse does not mean 'beat', the overwhelming majority stand with the Islamic tradition and the unimpeachable linguistic case that is made in agreeing that 'beating' is what the verse instructs. No Arabic dictionary or serious scholar has dissented from this consensus. | {{Quran|4|34}} Instructs men to beat their wives if they fear nushūzahunna, a word commonly understood to mean "their disobedience" or "their rebellion", though the exact meaning of the word is unclear (see {{Quran|4|128}}, which gives instructions to women who fear nushūzan from their husbands). The word 'beat' in the Arabic is ''daraba.''<ref>daraba - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume5/00000062.pdf Lane's lexicon] Book I page 1777</ref> Although a small number of modern Islamic scholars, apologists, and activists have argued that the word ''daraba'' in the verse does not mean 'beat', the overwhelming majority stand with the Islamic tradition and the unimpeachable linguistic case that is made in agreeing that 'beating' is what the verse instructs. No Arabic dictionary or serious scholar has dissented from this consensus. | ||
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The word "lightly" does not appear in the original Arabic version, but is added in some translations. | The word "lightly" does not appear in the original Arabic version, but is added in some translations. | ||
Professor Jonathan Brown says that Quran commentaries from the 9th century include a narration about the occasion of revelation of Q 4:34, with a chain considered too weak for the canonical hadith collections. In the various versions of this story, a man complains to Muhammad about his son-in-law beating his wife, the man's daughter. Muhammad grants him permission for reprisal, whereupon the verse is immediately sent down. It ends with Muhammad saying, "I wanted one thing and God wanted another. And God wants what is best."<ref>Jonathan A. C. Brown, ''Misquoting Muhammad'', London: Oneworld Publications, 2014, p. 275</ref> See the section on Azbab an-Nazuul in the article [[Wife Beating in the Qur'an]] for quotes from the sira literature of this narration, which seems intended to exonerate Muhammad. A hadith collected by Abu Dawud (see below) in which 'Umar influenced Muhammad to permit wife beating, may suggest an alternative background to the verse. | |||
====(38:44) Job beats his wife==== | ====(38:44) Job beats his wife==== | ||
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====Muhammad's companions striking women==== | ====Muhammad's companions striking women==== | ||
Unlike the traditional occasion of revelation for Q. 4:34 which appeared in commentaries from the 9th century CE (discussed above), there is some hadith evidence that the wife beating verse may have been a result of pressure from 'Umar, or at least there is an intention in the hadith to exonerate Muhammad who is portrayed as reluctantly agreeing to permit wife beating. 'Umar, who would became the second rightly guided Caliph, is also recorded slapping Muhammad's wife Hafsa and striking his own wife, and on yet another occasion telling a man to beat his wife after she tried to stop him having intercourse with (raping) a slave girl. Hadiths suggest a general pattern of 'Umar's violence towards and interest in controlling women. The revelation of the Verse of Hijab ({{Quran|33|53}} is even more explicitly linked to pressure from 'Umar (see the article [[Hijab]]). | |||
Multiple hadiths in the authoritative ''[[Sahih Bukhari]]'' report that Abu Bakr (the first Rightly-Guided [[Caliph]] of Islam and Muhammad's best friend) also struck (his daughter) Aisha violently with his fist. | Multiple hadiths in the authoritative ''[[Sahih Bukhari]]'' report that Abu Bakr (the first Rightly-Guided [[Caliph]] of Islam and Muhammad's best friend) also struck (his daughter) Aisha violently with his fist. | ||
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Putting together, the hadiths suggest that Muhammad condemned those who beat their wives as severely as they beat their slaves. It is also evident that, at least for some time, Muhammad forbade wife-beating altogether. It is also evident that Muhammad then reverted from this position to permitting wife-beating, albeit this time around while encouraging his male companions not to beat their wives as severely as they beat their slaves. This final position is also found reiterated in the various versions of his final sermon reported found in the hadith literature. | Putting together, the hadiths suggest that Muhammad condemned those who beat their wives as severely as they beat their slaves. It is also evident that, at least for some time, Muhammad forbade wife-beating altogether. It is also evident that Muhammad then reverted from this position to permitting wife-beating, albeit this time around while encouraging his male companions not to beat their wives as severely as they beat their slaves. This final position is also found reiterated in the various versions of his final sermon reported found in the hadith literature. | ||
Tabari, a source Islamic scholars view as being considerably less reliable than the sahih hadiths, also reports that Ibn Abbas | Tabari, a source Islamic scholars view as being considerably less reliable than the sahih hadiths, also reports that Ibn Abbas was asked what is meant by the phrase "beat them without severity" and replied that "It is with a toothstick (siwak) or something similar. A siwak or miswak was a small stick used for cleaning one's teeth. Many doubt the reliability of this report, which appears to contradict the overall message of the hadith literature, though it is a popular explanation today. | ||
Critics have also noted what they describe as the sheer absurdity of the qualification found in the report and suggest that it could hardly be that God would leave out such an important qualification from the verse which, read in isolation, simply instructs men to beat their wives. To do so, critics suggest, would be a serious lack of judgement on God's part. Critics have also ridiculed the absurdity of the practice itself - what is the purpose, they ask, of tapping one's wife with a twig? And why would ''this'' prove effective if admonition of one's wife and abandoning her in bed had proven ineffective - surely tapping someone with a twig cannot be more compelling than either of these measures? Such a practice, critics conclude, is, at worst, a humiliating and patronizing symbolic gesture (having no place in polite society), or, at best, a fiction generated in the minds of later Muslims (that is, 7th, 8th, or 9th century Muslims attributing this idea, retroactively, back to Ibn Abbas) who were having a hard time reconciling the conflicting imperatives of an early Islamic tradition which at once taught Muslims to be kind to one another - and to beat their wives. | Critics have also noted what they describe as the sheer absurdity of the qualification found in the report and suggest that it could hardly be that God would leave out such an important qualification from the verse which, read in isolation, simply instructs men to beat their wives. To do so, critics suggest, would be a serious lack of judgement on God's part. Critics have also ridiculed the absurdity of the practice itself - what is the purpose, they ask, of tapping one's wife with a twig? And why would ''this'' prove effective if admonition of one's wife and abandoning her in bed had proven ineffective - surely tapping someone with a twig cannot be more compelling than either of these measures? Such a practice, critics conclude, is, at worst, a humiliating and patronizing symbolic gesture (having no place in polite society), or, at best, a fiction generated in the minds of later Muslims (that is, 7th, 8th, or 9th century Muslims attributing this idea, retroactively, back to Ibn Abbas) who were having a hard time reconciling the conflicting imperatives of an early Islamic tradition which at once taught Muslims to be kind to one another - and to beat their wives. | ||
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===Reformists=== | ===Reformists=== | ||
The Egyptian-American reformist jurist Abou El Fadl argues using {{Quran|4|128}} and the farewell sermon that nushūz refers to sexual betrayal and that striking a wife is limited to that scenario, while the Saudi scholar Abd al-Hamid Abu Sulayman (d. 2021) claimed daraba in Q. 4:34 means to leave, withdraw, abandon her. He acknowledged that this was a break with 1400 years of Islamic tradition.<ref>Jonathan A. C. Brown, ''Misquoting Muhammad'', p. 271, 277-78</ref> This untenable interpretation of the Arabic word daraba is discussed in the article [[ | The Egyptian-American reformist jurist Abou El Fadl argues using {{Quran|4|128}} and the farewell sermon that nushūz refers to sexual betrayal and that striking a wife is limited to that scenario, while the Saudi scholar Abd al-Hamid Abu Sulayman (d. 2021) claimed daraba in Q. 4:34 means to leave, withdraw, abandon her. He acknowledged that this was a break with 1400 years of Islamic tradition.<ref>Jonathan A. C. Brown, ''Misquoting Muhammad'', p. 271, 277-78</ref> This untenable interpretation of the Arabic word daraba as it is used in Q. 4:34 is discussed in the article [[The Meaning of Daraba]]. | ||
In mid 20th century Tunisia at a time of secularization, Ibn Ashur (d. 1975) claimed that Q. 4:34-35 was entirely addressed as an instruction to the court authorities. His view was based on sharia procedural analogy that only rarely can a party in a case act as judge and mete out punishment, as well as general experience that a man could not be trusted to restrain himself in private and will likely transgress limits.<ref>Jonathan A. C. Brown, ''Misquoting Muhammad'', p. 279-80</ref> Critics would note this as an obviously implausible interpretation of verse 34 since husbands are directly instructed in that verse, most obviously when it tells them to forsake their wives in bed and given that the remedy in the verse is merely for when there is a "fear" of nushūz. | In mid 20th century Tunisia at a time of secularization, Ibn Ashur (d. 1975) claimed that Q. 4:34-35 was entirely addressed as an instruction to the court authorities. His view was based on sharia procedural analogy that only rarely can a party in a case act as judge and mete out punishment, as well as general experience that a man could not be trusted to restrain himself in private and will likely transgress limits.<ref>Jonathan A. C. Brown, ''Misquoting Muhammad'', p. 279-80</ref> Critics would note this as an obviously implausible interpretation of verse 34 since husbands are directly instructed in that verse, most obviously when it tells them to forsake their wives in bed and given that the remedy in the verse is merely for when there is a "fear" of nushūz. | ||
A common modernist or apologetic perspective today, | A common modernist or apologetic perspective today is to make use of the narration discussed in the section above on attempts to moderate the severity of beatings, in which Ibn 'Abbas clarifies the farewell sermon phrase "a beating without severity" to mean with a toothbrush stick or similar object. In this interpretation, husbands may lightly tap their wives with a small stick or twig. | ||
==Domestic violence in the Islamic World== | ==Domestic violence in the Islamic World== | ||
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====Contestation of the word ''daraba''==== | ====Contestation of the word ''daraba''==== | ||
{{Main|Wife Beating in the Qur'an}}{{Quote|[http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/pamela_k_taylor/2009/02/aasiya_hassan_domestic_violenc.html Aasiya Zubair Hassan, Domestic Violence and Islam]<BR>Pamela K. Taylor, The Washington Post, February 27, 2009|The fulcrum of this patriarchal interpretation is verse 4:34. Translations vary wildly, ranging from those defining men the the defenders of women to those who render it as men being in charge of women. (The Arabic word, qawamun, comes from a root which means to stand up, thus men are called to stand up for women.) The verse goes on to say that devout women protect that which Allah would have them protect in their husbands absences. Again, the interpretations vary wildly -- from those who read it quite literally, describing pious women as devoted to Allah, to those who take it mean women should be devoutly obedient to their husbands. It continues, saying that if men fear "nushuz" (understood variously as openly rebellion, adultery, spiritual negligence, or wifely disobedience), they should admonish their wives and then separate from them in sleeping arrangements. And then the third phase -- the word used is "daraba." | {{Main|The Meaning of Daraba|Wife Beating in the Qur'an}}{{Quote|[http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/pamela_k_taylor/2009/02/aasiya_hassan_domestic_violenc.html Aasiya Zubair Hassan, Domestic Violence and Islam]<BR>Pamela K. Taylor, The Washington Post, February 27, 2009|The fulcrum of this patriarchal interpretation is verse 4:34. Translations vary wildly, ranging from those defining men the the defenders of women to those who render it as men being in charge of women. (The Arabic word, qawamun, comes from a root which means to stand up, thus men are called to stand up for women.) The verse goes on to say that devout women protect that which Allah would have them protect in their husbands absences. Again, the interpretations vary wildly -- from those who read it quite literally, describing pious women as devoted to Allah, to those who take it mean women should be devoutly obedient to their husbands. It continues, saying that if men fear "nushuz" (understood variously as openly rebellion, adultery, spiritual negligence, or wifely disobedience), they should admonish their wives and then separate from them in sleeping arrangements. And then the third phase -- the word used is "daraba." | ||
Daraba is used for many, many things in the Qur'an, from sexual intercourse to parting company, from metaphorically striking a parable to physically striking a person or thing. The vast majority of commentators, have understood the meaning of 4:34 to mean hitting. Modern interpreters such as Ahmed Ali and Laleh Bakhtiar, have made a case that this interpretation is wrong. | Daraba is used for many, many things in the Qur'an, from sexual intercourse to parting company, from metaphorically striking a parable to physically striking a person or thing. The vast majority of commentators, have understood the meaning of 4:34 to mean hitting. Modern interpreters such as Ahmed Ali and Laleh Bakhtiar, have made a case that this interpretation is wrong. | ||